The first episode revolves around the Helling family, who came to Haarlem from Indonesia a few generations ago. They started the restaurant ‘De Lachende Javaan’ there, which managed to gain a strong place in the city.
“The Helling family inspires me, because they not only serve food from their motherland in the restaurant, but want to keep the entire Indonesian culture alive,” says Rudy Nicola, the creator of the series. “When you enter there, the history of Indonesians who came to the Netherlands immediately comes alive.”
The family extends their mission to the design of their menu, which is laid out like an old newspaper: the Java messenger. Every so often new stories about the history of Java are added.
33-year-old Nicola came up with the idea for the series when he saw a Turkish shop in his own Haarlem neighborhood as a place where people from all kinds of cultures came together. The connecting effect of these enterprising newcomers intrigued him and led to a series about six such families, from various areas of the world and settled in different parts of North Holland.